The video (and audio) obtained from many Internet sites for display on Internet TVs is of poor quality for various reasons, including quality of original encoding and network conditions. For example, a user might view Internet video on a device and might be presented with a menu with 300 different Internet sites that provide Internet TV content, and as recognized herein it is unfortunately the case that the video (and audio) obtained from many of these web sites may be of poor quality owing to a low encoded bit rate of the original content, as well as owing to packet drops, jitter, latency, and other problems caused by the network between the content server and the user's content presentation device.
As understood herein, such network problems may be caused by inadequate capabilities of the streaming server (e.g. CPU power, bus bandwidth) for the number of streams it is providing simultaneously to different viewers. Network problems may also be caused by inadequate bandwidth of the access link from the server to the Internet, as well as by inadequate bandwidth of the access link from the Internet to the user's content presentation device.
The present invention also recognizes that from the perspective of a user in his house, content from certain Internet TV sites will consistently provide content that is superior in technical quality to content from other Internet TV sites. In addition, some Internet TV sites may consistently be sources of video that may have unacceptably poor quality when viewed on the user's content presentation device. The problem then becomes how a user might determine which Internet sites are preferable with regard to technical quality of content, and once this is determined, how a user might remember the quality of content from various sites for future reference. With these critical recognitions in mind, the invention herein is provided.